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Studio Art

Featured in the W&L curriculum for almost sixty years, the Art Studio program hosts a vibrant community of creators who specialize in the communication of ideas through visual forms. Among the techniques taught are those of oil and acrylic painting; sculpture in clay, wood, welded metal, and mixed-media materials; digital, traditional and alternative photography; and a variety of printmaking processes. Faculty both produce their own work for juried exhibitions and train undergraduates to think and to work as artists in the professional world.

Wilson Hall’s new facilities offer state-of-the-art studios for all students, and feature a separate space set aside for senior art majors to produce a body of work for their thesis projects. Because each studio contains large windows looking out onto the scenic Woods Creek basin, these teaching and working areas are well-lit and take full advantage of the surrounding landscape that has made the Shenandoah Valley so famous.

Due to the nature of studio courses, enrollments for introductory-level classes are limited and the bar of expectations is set quite high: this means, of course, that students active in the art program at W&L benefit from close interactions with faculty and frequently develop strong ties to their teachers and to their student peers. They also work long hours, learn to receive constructive criticism, and get their hands dirty.